A Christmas To Remember
by PerseusSlayerOfMedusa
Summary: What happens when demigods get competitive with Christmas decorating? Let's just say... the answer can't be good. This story explains what all can happen when demigods go a bit... overboard with decorating for the holiday season! Spin-off to The Calm Before The Storm and Stolen: The Rise of Chaos.
1. We Deduct A Challenge

**Aye, guys! c: **

**This is a new multi-chapter story that TeamPiper and I came up with! (:  
It's a Christmas themed spin-off of Calm Before The Storm, and therefore Stolen: The Rise of Chaos, technically! If you've not read those, please do! Now, on with the chapter! **

**AJ's POV****—**

I wake up covered in layer upon layers of cover, with the rest of the Poseidon cabin up and running around the cabin. A huge blue Christmas tree rests in the corner, seashells and coral ornaments adorned on it, blue and purple lights strung to the limbs. Everyone's in the festive Christmas spirit, putting up stockings on the walls, drinking hot chocolate, and all the Christmas-y stuff like that.

Mac sits on the bunk under me, slipping on a green and red Christmas sweater.

"You're awake, finally!" she scoffs, laughing lightly. "Heavy sleeper much?"

I rub the sleep out of my eyes. "I guess..."

"You need to get ready!" I say. "We're all meeting up in a bit."

"Who?" I ask tiredly.

"The gang!" she puts her index and middle finger on the bridge of her nose, squeezing tightly. "Gods, sometimes I wonder what your life would be without me."

I roll my eyes, then sit up on my bunk. The other Poseidon kids walk out the door, closing it. I walk into the bathroom and slip on a pair of jeans, my tennis shoes, a long-sleeved blue T-shirt, then pull on a thick jacket. I step out of the bathroom, and walk over to the door. Standing in the door frame talking is Mac, and then there's Hollie, standing next to the hearth, which burns at full height.

Her blonde hair is tucked tightly into a toboggan, her bangs the only thing hanging out, covering her face. She's wearing a jacket wrapped around her small body. She's tucked into a pair of tight blue jeans, and—despite the fact it's below freezing outside—she's bare-footed. But this isn't a problem for her, to be honest. See, she's blind, but she's a daughter of Demeter—the goddess of the Earth—so she can see with her feet, sorta.

"Mac!" she shouts, motioning towards her. "Short Straw! Hurry up!"

I laugh lightly, then start to jog over towards her, my breath turning to mist. Running up behind her is Will, his arms outstretched, as if to catch her. She tenses right before he gets to her, then turns around quickly, punching him in the gut. **  
**

"Nice try, Hot-Shot." she smirks. He just sighs.

We all walk over to the pavilion, a circular marble building, besides the fact it has no walls or roof—just columns propped up in certain places. Strung in-between the columns is garland with boughs of holly tied into them. Mistletoe dangles in random places, no doubt held up by spells from the Hecate cabin—or possibly the Aphrodite cabin, since that's sorta associated with love?

Everyone's dressed Christmas-y, and most of the Aphrodite girls wear Mrs. Claus' dresses which are _way_ too short. Some of the guys wear Santa hats, which they actually can pull off. The only person I can see not really dressed up for Christmas is the Hades kids and then my friend Mason, the son of Hephaestus.

He's wearing a pair of black jeans, his combat boots, his dagger and a long sword strapped to his belt, and a sleeveless shirt, so I figured he must be freezing—but more unlikely not, because he seemed to be radiating a layer of heat. In fact, most of the pavilion floor is covered in a thin layer of snow, though there's a small circle of dry ground around where he stands. He's standing next to Cami, daughter of Athena, and they talk. He looks agitated, moving his hands as they're talking.

As we walk over to them, I hear, "—there can't be another quest—" then they notice us coming over and stop abruptly.

"What was that?" Mac asks.

"Oh, I was just explaining about how this is my first American Christmas," Cami lies, terribly.

"Nice!" Hollie says, obviously not paying attention—though, since she's blind, it's hard to tell if she's paying attention or not.

"Let's get some breakfast," Mason says, eyeing me warily.

We all walk over to the endless buffet table, and I pick up on my plate some fresh crunchy bacon, and pick up a few pancakes which are shaped like reindeer, with a nutmeg smell to them and berries stuffed inside of them. I drown them with maple syrup, then drop the juiciest slice of bacon in the brazier for the gods. Mac and I sit down at our table, and oddly enough, everyone's sitting at the wrong table—I guess Chiron was being generous for Christmas—so we walk over to the Hephaestus table, where Ray, Mason, a few Hephaestus campers, Hollie, and Bay are sitting.

"Well, hey there, guys." Ray says, laughing.

"Sup?" I say, slipping onto the bench on the other side. Will comes over and sits next to me, stealing one of my bacon slices.

"Not much, just planning for the annual cabin-decorating contest later today." Ray says, taking a bite of pancake.

"Wait. What's that?" Bay asks, looking up at the mistletoe above her head and the boys giggling at her. She lights her index finger like a birthday candle, then shoots a flame up at it, and it crumbles to ashes.

"Man, you dunno what that is?!" Mason exclaims. "Oh... you're a new camper, along with these guys!"

"Oh my gods! You have to know what this is!" Hollie exclaims.

"Well, see, on Christmas, all the cabins have this decorating contest. Whoever decorates their cabin the best wins golden laurels. Whoever loses has to clean the bathrooms until Valentines Day." Ray says.

"Harsh," Bay says, a hint of a smile on her face.

"Oh, well, it's gonna be harsh for you when the Poseidon cabin beats you all!" Mac says, throwing up her hands.

"You haven't seen what a Hecate kid can do with a spellbook, have you?" Bay asks, arching an eyebrow.

"Well, Hephaestus is the god of inventors." Mason says, smirking. "We've won for the past five years."

"That is a lie!" Hollie says. "Last year, the Demeter cabin won! It looked amazing!"

"Hollie, you couldn't even see it."

"No, Wolowitz, I couldn't see it." she says. "But I know it was better than yours. Why do you even care, anyways? You're Jewish."

Mason frowns. "I'm not Jewish..."

"And Demeter is just that awesome." she says smugly. "So you can all get stuffed."

It's not long before we're all throwing out threats of who's going to win and who's going to lose.

"Wait!" Mac says, nearly spilling her Mountain Dew. "Why don't we have a contest inside a contest?!"

"Uh... a what?" I ask stupidly.

"Whoever the losing cabin is out of us has to sleep outside tonight!"

"Sounds like a bet," Bay says, flashing up a Christmas light bracelet on her wrist. "Just so you know, I've been studying spells for conjuring stuff up. Ya'll better be getting your sleeping bags ready."

**He he. c:  
I'm going to really enjoy writing this.  
So, I need a bit of help coming up with what'll happen later on. So...**

**_Poll!_  
**

**Make it twenty chapters, one for each cabin, and how they decorate their cabins;**

**OR;**

**Make it just a few chapters, one for each cabin participating in the contest-inside-a-contest, so it'd be like six chapters. **

**Please vote! This is sort of giving you your own option in the making of this story! c:**

**Until next time. **


	2. Hollie Breaks The Ice

**AJ's POV—**

"That's a great idea!" I exclaim as Mac explains how she wants to decorate our cabin.

Her idea was ice. Because we were children of Poseidon, the god of water, we assumed we could make it—you know, because it's just a derivative of water. We wanted the ice _everywhere._ It would be winter-y, not Christmas-y. I don't know if she was intending to be all religion because Hollie keeps insisting Mason is Jewish, but we wouldn't want to offend, so...

Mac started to add an icy glare to the windows, while I worked on the stone walkway. I stood at the door-frame of the cabin, thrusting my hands forward. I feel a sharp tug in the pit of my gut, and water blasts out from the crevices between the rocks. The stone becomes coated with a thin layer of water, and I clench my fists. The water shuts off, and the tug in my stomach lessens. I release my fist, and the water turns shiny, and then becomes ice.

Next up—the roof.

**:.:.:.:.:.:**

Within the next few minutes, the pain of Mac's snow boots dig into my shoulders, and she grows icicles on the gutter of the roof. It was times like this I wish Mac was Hollie; she was about four inches shorter, smaller, and not to mention she didn't wear shoes.

As soon as the outside of the cabin looked like an igloo, we went inside to decorate the roof and such.

Just as we were about finished, I heard something outside.

"Mac!" I whisper/yell. "I think it's a spy!"

I hear a small laugh from outside, and a voice that says, "Even if I _was_ a spy, I would be all that great, now would I, Short Straw?"

Hollie.

"Gods, you can just be _so _paranoid at times." she says. "Not like anything's going to happen— Crap." she says, the last word echoing with fear.

I looked out the window, taking in the sight of Hollie standing right in the middle of our ice-covered walkway, no doubt unable to feel the earth vibrating under her.

"Mac!" I yell, as she comes towards the door frame.

"What?" she asks, her voice filled with annoyance, but then chimes into realization. "Oh. Yeah, that's a problem."

"What do I do?" Hollie asks, her voice oddly steely calm for someone that can't see what's going on.

I stuttered out some words, but nothing she could understand.

"AJ! What—do—I—do." she says, cutting off every word, fear rising in her voice.

AJ. She called me AJ. She's _never_ called me AJ. She must be really freaked out.

"Okay, Hollie," Mac says, "Take a few steps back."

Too late.

She tries, but falls right onto her butt, causing a giant crack to form in our perfect ice.

Mac and I threw a miniature tantrum, which mostly consisted of stomping our feet on the icy floor.

"Well..." Hollie says, still sitting on the broken ice. "That's embarrassing."

**Hey guys. :3 **

**TeamPiper wrote this chapter, and I edited it.**

**This has been sitting in my binder _forever_... Sorry for not updating it! D: As I've explained in most of my stories, winter blues has got me in its hold from time to time. .-. But I'm trying to fight it. The next chapter will be up as soon as possible *maybe even tonight if TeamPiper can send an idea.* **

**And sorry it's so short (about only five hundred words)! \:**


	3. Humpty Hollie Had A Great Fall—Again

**Hollie's POV—**

I scramble away from the broken ice as fast as possible, and almost faint in relief as I touch the earth again, able to _see__, _sort of.

I get back to my cabin as soon as possible, just wanting to get away from all that shiz. As I step inside, I wonder how in the gods names am I gonna do this? Not that I need help—and I don't. Ever. But I don't exactly know what the heck I'll be doing. My brothers and sisters all went home for Christmas, leaving me—the freaking blind chick—alone to do all this Holiday crap by myself.

I had wanted to go home for Christmas, but my mortal parents think I'd drowned, so...I have to stay at camp. It's a bummer really, but I don't have as many people here at camp that make fun of me for being blind, because blindness seems like a weakness, but it just gave me a Sixth Sense, sort of.

Nobody gets what it's like for me—not even Will, that—what's the word? Wannabe Prince Charming? Not even _he _gets me. I sigh, actually wishing he was here to help decorate. I could use another set of eyes, not hands to help.

Suddenly, I hear a light whistling through the air, and duck to the ground. An arrow, I assume, hits the wood on the side of the cabin, and I shout, "You have to try harder than that!"

I stand up, then place my hands over the door of the cabin, twisting open the handle. I walk over the foundation, and sigh in relief of how they decorated the cabin. There's no real floor on the inside, just the dirt on the ground, as Demeter's an earth goddess, so they didn't feel right about covering her up.

I find my self—for some reason—thinking about AJ and that girl, Eme. Even though I couldn't see either of them, I could feel the chemistry radiating from them, the sparks in the air when they had stood around each other—at least, until she'd gotten possessed.

All I really, truly want is to be able to talk to people, but no. I just suck it up, and that is what I'm going to do about decorating.

I don't need no one to help me, because that will just prove to people I'm weak. No, I'm strong and independent. I walk over to a closet I think, and close my fingers around a metal ladder, walking outside—after clumsily bouncing the ladder into the door-frame.

I prop it up on what I guess is the roof, and take one foot off the ground, putting it on the ladder. I hoist myself up off the ground, and instantly I can't feel the earth under me, leaving me in the dark—quite literally. I slowly start to climb up, not too fast. I can feel the ladder shaking under me, but don't consider that too much.

I can just feel my hands closing around the gutter of the cabin, touching the grass roof, when things take a turn for the worst.

The ladder finally gives under me, and clatters to the ground, leaving me dangling from the gutter, breathing heavily.

I lose my grip on the ladder, and hear someone scream my name, when I regain my bearings, thrusting my hands towards the air. A thick grass vine extends down from the roof, and I grab onto it, and it lowers me to the ground ever so slowly.

I lay down on the ground, breathing heavily and sigh in relief.

I grumble, "I'm just gonna go see what Short Straw is up to, I guess."

**I had Taylor Swift's _Speak Now_ playing the entire time while writing this... O.o It helps me write a lot, for some reason lol.**


End file.
